Trivia
Donald Trump has said he will “most likely” give TikTok a 90-day reprieve from a ban that is due to take effect on Sunday, on the eve of his swearing-in as the 47th US president.
I don’t have an opinion about TikTok or its ban or its reprieve from a ban, because I know pretty much nothing about it.
“The 90-day extension is something that will be most likely done, because it’s appropriate. You know, it’s appropriate. We have to look at it carefully. It’s a very big situation,” Trump said in a phone interview with NBC News.
He made similarly remarks hours later to ABC News.
“Well, I have the right as you know, I’m the one who is going to be calling the shots,” he told ABC. “Most likely, I’ll extend for 90 days – you have the extension for 90 days as you probably know. I’ll do that until we figure something out.”
Squeaky baby voice: I have the right, I’m the one who is going to be calling the shots, I can do whatever I want, I’m the boss, I can break all your toys if I feel like it.
Trump previously backed a TikTok ban, but has more recently professed a “warm spot” for the app, touting the billions of views he says his videos attracted on the platform during last year’s presidential campaign.
Soft spot, not warm spot. He can’t even do clichés right. Also yuck. “Warm spot” is disgusting.
This was written by a journalist?
He actually can’t do this… Unless something that looks like a sale is forthcoming.
Kate Klonick has some good writing on this.
I’m equally ignorant about TikTok. The only thing I know is that my sister joined as soon as she heard that Trump wanted to ban it; and that she kept sending me links to videos on it that won’t play, until I asked her to stop (rather more tactfully than that, of course).
For what it’s worth, the tiktok ban is political theatre. The supposed basis is that it is owned by a Chinese company and therefore all data stored with the app is probably being leaked to the Chinese government. However we know data security is not their concern at all, because facebook et al have been selling user data and we’ve known this for years. As I recall, this originated from right wing racism – lawks, a Chinese company! – and somehow Democrats took the cause up as well.
My speculative answer for that is protectionism for US dominance over social media, as Tiktok is taking users away from Youtube and Facebook, both American companies.
#1 ikn
I was thinking it was written by a large language model.
This is actually a full description of who Donald Trump is.
He was for the ban because China, and xenophobia
Then he got billions of views and his narcissism made him change his mind.
And he’s convinced he can do it because megalomania.
Finally it’s him chasing the next shiny thing, what’s on top of his mind is the most important thing, until he’s distracted by something else.
Such a vile creature
Both Holms and Soren make valid points, but cynical me says Trump is just figuring out a way he can get Musk to pay ByteDance and give the keys to Trump.
If I’m Musk, why would I give the keys to Trump when I can keep them for myself? The black MAGA hat has to count for something.